Spam in Any Flavor is Still Spam

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I’m assuming that if you’re in business it is at least in part to make money. Maybe I’m unusual, but I don’t think so unless it might be the depth of my aversion to the things I’m about to mention. There are certain things you can do that virtually insure that I will never do business with you. Some things should be obvious; others may not be. Here they are in no particular order.

Send me paper mail. Granted, spam came to mean what it does today by way of the Internet, but the concept holds. I don’t want it. It carries an indirect cost to me. I would be curious to know how much landfill space is occupied by junk mail. I know that we haul out several heavy bags a year full of nothing but junk mail to be recycled, and we don’t sign up for any of it. You put a burden on us to deal with it and increase the cost of garbage collection. I won’t give you any of my money if I can help it. I haven’t done this since I got married because Linda usually sorts the mail, but I used to keep a spreadsheet of companies who sent me mail so that I would not inadvertently do business with them. I have recently read that the post office in an effort to stay afloat has sweetened the deal for direct mail marketers. I wish there was a way to opt out of the post office entirely.

Hang something on my door. I am uniquely able to completely ignore you’re advertising in this way since I don’t see well. I won’t even catch the big letters with a glance. It goes straight to the trash without ever being seen. You’re wasting both your money and mine for the reasons mentioned in the junk mail rant. I would like to put a paper shredder in the door with a glass front and a message, “insert flyers here.”

Send me email. This one’s obvious, being the official definition of spam, but all related forms also qualify. Examples include posting on forums, commenting on my blog, etc. Especially annoying are those of you who use the public comment form on my web sites. We both know that is not what the form is for. There is no way I will do business with you.

Finally, my latest pet peeve, follow me on Twitter. I’m not the least bit interested in giving you free advertising space because you show up on my profile and I absolutely will not follow you back. In fact, I’m as likely as not to report you for spam. I’ve let a few sneak by because they are not selling something and I like what they’re about, but I think this is a pretty lame way of getting your name out. I have not followed any of you in return nor am I likely to. Friends are welcome as are people actually interested by some miracle in what I have to say. Why tweet at all if you don’t want followers? There is a difference between followers and freeloaders. I won’t go into the more obvious forms of Twitter spam. Those are easily identified.

I’m done ranting now. I will engage in a bit of hopefully polite self-promotion now and ask that if you agree with me pass this around. I suspect a lot of these people have read some misguided book or article that tells them they should do this kind of thing. I also realize that there are always a certain number of people who will respond and since the cost of shoveling it out is minimal it probably isn’t going anywhere, but I can dream.

And by the way, don’t call me. I’ll call you. 🙂

Feel Good

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I am in the pages
Of a magazine.
I am in the movies.
I’m in the party scene.
Find me on the city street.
Find me in the bar.
Find me sitting next to you
riding in your car.
You might even see me dancing on a church pew
It doesn’t really matter ’cause I can make you feel good.

Refrain
I can make you feel good.
And you always knew I would.
Never question if I should
’cause I can make you feel good.

You can find me in a bottle.
You can find me on a plate.
You can find me passing everybody
on the interstate.
You can find me on the TV.
You can find me in a book.
You can find me waiting for you
everywhere you look.
It doesn’t matter how you find me.
Only that you do ’cause I can make you feel good.

Refrain

You can find me in the church house.
I’m behind the microphone.
Put a tickle in your ear.
Never let the truth be known.
Listen to my pretty story
Listen to my pretty song.
I got the answer straight from God.
You know I’ll never do you wrong.
Maybe I don’t know myself.
You don’t care if I do.
The only thing that matters is I can make you feel good.

Refrain

Conceived as a song with a funky pop beat

Words

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

If every word that has been written were written on the sky, would the world see the sun? Man’s attempt to build the tower of Babel was thwarted by the Almighty. Man thinks to build it again with bricks of glue and paper.

If every word that man has spoken were spoken all at once, would the world be deafened by the noise? Every man caries his soap box. How often he fails to see that the contents of his platform would benefit from an application of the former contents of his platform, but it is so much easier to carry when empty.

A word is an abstract thing. When written, a mere collection of letters. When spoken, a collection of sounds. A word may be seen, heard, even felt, but of itself it has no substance. Yet our world is defined by words.

What a paradox is the word. Words in the mouth of one are priceless, while the same words in the mouth of another are worthless. They carry the power of destruction and the power of creation. They are a murderer’s knife and a surgeon’s scalpel. They are a deadly poison and a healing tonic.

Oh that we would learn to give value to our words, for the power of the word is in the speaker. How often we toss them around like refuse, taking no thought for where they may land. We expect others to except them as truth, but fail to honor them ourselves. In our anger we throw them at the ones we love, and then don’t understand why they throw them back at us. We see our own bleeding and still fail to understand that the same thing that wounded us also wounded them. We grow our thick skin, which, while it may be less easily damaged, is also less able to feel.

Where is the truth? If we construct an understanding of ourselves and our world with words, where is the foundation that would support such a structure? What an amazing thing, that the creator of the universe would choose as one way to define Himself, “The Word.” The Word brought the earth into existence. The Word created man in His own image. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word is life to us. It is His power delivered to us through His words that provides a standard by which the value of all other words may be judged. The paradoxical word, personified, purified and glorified, is Jesus Himself.

May The Word be the master of your words from this day forward.

A Letter from My Love

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I wrote this little song shortly after Linda and I discovered our love for each other. I always imagined it with a happy folk melody. She the early riser would often have written me something before I got up. I would rush to my computer first thing to see if there was anything waiting for me.

Sleep, it has departed.
I really must get started
For I’m waiting for a letter from my love.

My love, who brings me joy in the morning
My love, who helps me make it through the day
Dreams I have while waking
There is just no mistaking
I’m waiting for a letter from my love.

A simple little letter
It makes the day much better
I’m waiting for a letter from my love.

My love who is the one that I’ve been missing
My love who makes me sing a happy song
My pillow in the floor
I’m running for the dor
For I’m waiting for a letter from my love.

I say a little prayer to
The One who gave me to you
As I’m waiting for a letter from my love.

Oh God who makes such sweet anticipation
Oh thank you for what you have done for me
My morning’s all aglow
For in my heart I know
That I’m waiting for a letter from my love.

Is Jealousy Always Sinful?

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

This is not something I have often struggled with, but when I have, I justified it this way. God describes Himself as being jealous, so there must be circumstances under which jealousy is appropriate. When I decided to write about this and began looking through the Bible, I believe I found evidence for that position, though I have not made a thorough study.

Sometimes we mix up the words jealousy and envy. Envy is not the same thing, and I do not thing we can find any justification for envy. For an eye-opening exploration of envy, I highly recommend Bob Sorge’s book on the subject. Envy is not something I thought I had a problem with until I read it. His book helped me to see it and deal with the flawed thinking that came from it. You can get the book in PDF form as well and screen readers will handle it just fine.

Jealousy arises when we feel that something that belongs to us is being given to someone else. We most often see it between lovers or spouses. God made provision for it in the law (Numbers 5.) He meant for romantic love to be share exclusively between two people. Most of us know this instinctively. We are hurt, threatened, and angered on a deep level when we begin to believe that someone or even something else is violating that relationship. I don’t see this portrayed as sinful in the scriptures. We get in trouble when we feel it unjustifiably or respond to the feeling inappropriately. One example of both occurs in Acts chapter 5. The Jewish leaders are jealous of the following that the apostles are drawing to Jesus. They respond by trying to destroy them. They were jealous for authority that did not belong to them in the first place. In romantic relationships we can ruin perfectly good ones when we see threats that are not there, responding in hurtful ways from our own insecurity.

It might be argued that the only one truly entitled to feel jealousy is God. He alone is truly worthy of our devotion. He alone can claim unqualified rights to all that we are and all that we have. If we have any right to jealousy, we usually do not handle it well. There is, however, at least one instance where jealousy is praised (Numbers 25:11.) I think that the only time we can be completely sure we are not acting in sin is when our jealousy is born of our love for God. When we are driven to defend that which belongs to Him in a manner consistent with His will and nature, we know that our jealousy is justified.

September 11

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I usually try not to get swept up in the topic of the moment. Most just aren’t worth the time, but this one is different. I am concerned about some of the ways in which we have chosen to memorialize the September 11 attacks. I have to wonder if by going on and on about how they affected us, we are encouraging today’s would-be terrorists that the attacks were successful and should be repeated. Certainly the heroes who responded on that day deserve our thanks and our praise. Certainly the families of those who died deserve to have their sacrifice recognized. Do we do any of them service by lamenting the ways in which our enemies succeeded in harming us?

We should remember, but we should do so in a way that identifies our enemies and strengthens our resolve to fight them. It is time to move on. Screaming in pain is music to the ears of a tormentor. It is time to stop! It is also time to speak plainly about who was responsible. We are not at war with terror. Terror is a method of warfare. Attacking the method is foolish. We are at war with the users of such methods; specifically the Islamic radicals who choose to use it against us. These are the things we should never forget when we remember September 11.

If My People

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

This Sunday will be the anniversary of a sad day for America, when terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and over three-thousand people were killed. For a while we stood together and across the land was herd, “God bless America.” But that time was all too brief, and we have forgotten the reasons why God has blessed America. In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, after Solomon dedicated the newly built temple in Jerusalem, God gave him both a warning and a promise.

13 “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The warning was of judgment which He will bring upon the nation when it acts wickedly. The promise was that if His people will repent, He will restore them. I believe that just as Israel is called as a nation by His name, we as the church are called. God will act faithfully according to His promise. I believe that America is in danger of judgment from God if it has not already begun. How can it be otherwise for a nation that has slaughtered fifty-three million innocent unborn children? Hitler only killed six million people. We as god’s people cannot absolve ourselves of this guilt simply because we have not personally participated in it. If we have not prayed; if we have not warned; if we have not done all that we can to spread the truth of the Gospel, we must bear responsibility for the resulting downward spiral that our country has taken.

Across our land this Sunday there will be memorials for those we lost on 9/11. It is my prayer that as Christians we will do all that we can to prevent calamity far worse than what happened in New York City that day. God will not tolerate evil forever. Pray for your nation, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, even your enemies. Don’t miss any opportunity to share with them the good news of what Jesus has done for them.

Seven Year Itch?

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I don’t’ know the origin of the “seven year itch.” I didn’t even know what the phrase meant until recently. I gather that along about the seventh year of marriage people start to feel like they need something else. I didn’t research where this came from for this post, but it doesn’t make much sense to me. In fact, I am more content now than ever before.

Rare is the giddy head-over-heels feeling that characterized the months leading up to our marriage. I suppose if one is chasing that he might run off in the wrong direction. It is rather like a drug, and I guess I can understand how one would be addicted to it. What has replaced it is something more meaningful. My love for Linda now is not based so much on how she makes me feel as it is in who she is. We think we know someone when we marry them. We often find out we didn’t’ know much about them at all. I am proud to say that those qualities I saw in Linda at the beginning were real and are even more pronounced today. That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges to our relationship or that there won’t be more in the future, but our determination to love each other and to love God gives us the strength to overcome them.

Time only causes my appreciation for Linda to grow. I believe in her. Knowing her character allows me to keep perspective when the hard times do come. Why would I want to go looking elsewhere? To betray my wife in search of a fleeting emotional high makes no sense. Besides, anyone who would indulge me has already demonstrated a lack of character that foreshadows the doom of anything that might result from following that path. I like what I have; a devoted, loving, faithful, godly wife.

What Does It Mean to Trust in God?

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

When we talk about trust, do we have the same understanding of the word that God does when He says to trust Him?  I think not.  When we place some level of trust in another person, we believe that they have our best interests at heart.  That’s good as far as it goes.  That can certainly be said of God.  People will break that trust, sometimes with evil intent.  At other times it is just the result of imperfection.  Since God can neither be dishonest nor imperfect, what can we conclude when it seems that He has broken our trust?

We can trust God completely, but we need an understanding of what that means.  I think a more accurate definition of trust might be that the one in whom we are trusting is both able to and committed to do what he says he will do.  We cannot trust that God will do what we believe to be in our best interests.  We can trust Him to be true to His word and His nature.

My heart is heavy today for reasons I cannot share freely.  lest anyone be alarmed Linda and I are fine.  These are the thoughts going through my mind right now.  This I do know.  The Bible shows us over and over again that when God’s people turn to Him and call on His name, he rescues them.  I cannot say what God will do specifically, but I can pray.  I have seen His grace and mercy in my own life and in those of many i know.  I have also seen Him take bad things and make good things from them.  Whatever happens, I will trust Him.  I am convinced that all may do the same.

However, I must make a point of the truth that this isn’t good news for everyone.  Just as we can trust in His love, we must trust in His justice.  We have all fallen short of the holiness that is required to live in the presence of God.  We all must answer for all of the ways in which we have  done so.  The only hope for any of us is the sacrifice that Jesus made at the cross.  His perfection paid for our sins.  If we refuse to believe this; if we refuse to receive Him as lord of our lives, we can still expect that He will keep His word.  It is my prayer that anyone reading this who has not yet believed will make the choice now.  He does work everything together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28.)  It may be that whatever trial you are facing was meant to draw you to Him.  There is hope while you live.

What then is to be said to those of us who have believed and yet face evils from which we might have thought ourselves protected?  Only that God will keep His word.  Whatever this life brings it is only temporary.  We may not know what God is doing, but we can anticipate the glorious end which awaits.  We can rejoice in His goodness and thus draw others to wonder what gives us such strength.  We can cling to our faith and the One who gave it to us.  We can talk to Him in prayer and learn from the written word and His Holy Spirit.  We can surround ourselves with others who strengthen us when we become discouraged.  We can take the love that God has given to us and give it to others.  His joy heals the pain.

Those are easy words to say, but to those who are hurting they are little more than words.  It is my prayer that God will show me how to put action to them.  I cannot imagine the pain that some of my friends have experienced.  Though the truth remains the truth, the ways in which we speak and apply it can make all the difference in its effective communication.  let love be first.

An Unhappy First

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I will speak at my first funeral tomorrow.  Our pastor is officiating, but I have been asked to speak as well since I am the associate pastor and the deceased is a member of our church.  To the extent that we are able to know such things, it is a relief to know that he was a Christian.  What does one say otherwise?  His name is Sammy.
 
Two things stand out when I think about him.  First, it was always apparent that he loved his wife, who whent Home a couple of years ago.  They didn’t have a lot of the things we think of as important, but they had love.  Life doesn’t have any meaning without that.

The second thing is that our church was his family.  Our pastor is managing his estate because there was nobody else who could be found.  it points to the importants of relationships in the church.  Reach out to those around you.  They may not have anyone else.  Treasure life.  You don’t know how long you will have it.  Treasure the lives of others for the same reason.  There was no immediate reason to suspect that Sammy’s death was coming so soon.  We didn’t know him as well as we probably should have.  We did go to visit him a couple of times.  His passing has caused me to stop and think about the relationships I have both inside and outside of the church.  I am motivated to pursue them with purpose.

I ask your prayers for all of us as we absorb the shock of another death so close on the heals of losing a well loved member last year.  We’ve had quite a few since Linda and i have been coming.  I believe in the mission of this church, but if we do not find a way to revitalize it, we will quite literally die.